1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to two way communication over a network (such as the internet), and more particularly to the type of two way network communication that is commonly referred to as “surfing the web,” and even more particularly to prevention of: (i) receipt of malware (see DEFINITIONS section); and/or (ii) adverse consequences arising from the receipt of malware.
2. Description of the Related Art
The need for connection and interacting with the internet has become part of the way businesses, households, academia, governments and individuals conduct business, provide information, educate and derive entertainment. Unfortunately, the shared nature of its make-up and anonymity inherent also provide the basis for malicious activity that invades privacy, steals information and increases risk of liability for information loss. Sophisticated “hacking” practices generally are exercised and delivered to the victim via internet browsing which also includes the visiting of legitimate web sites that have been compromised to allow the transmittal of malware to the visitor's internet connected computer. Current practice for malware protection generally takes the form of anti-virus programs and malware scanners to keep computers and other internet connected systems protected. These include host based software and in-line devices.
Engaging in network communication by surfing the web is a relatively new form of communication, but it has become very, very popular in a relatively short time. When surfing the web, users use browser software, sometimes equipped with plug-ins to send and receive text, images, emails, files (for example, video files, audio files, zipped files), streaming video, streaming audio, communications with remote server-hosted software (like Flash), and so on. Users commonly send data up to remote server computers so that it can be accessed and enjoyed by others. Making a blog entry on blogging software is an example of that. Users generally receive data over the internet, and through their browsers, in the form of web pages, such as xml formatted web pages.
The browsers, and their plug-ins, are increasingly robust in the sense that they can handle many different types of data and/or executable code. This makes for a richer user experience when surfing the web, and is probably a large part of the reason that the internet continues to increase in popularity with regular folks. Besides browsers on traditional computers (like mainframes, desktops and laptops), browsers are now coming to other “computer” devices, like personal digital assistants and smartphones. In the future, browsers may be built into even smaller devices, like eyeglasses or implants or household appliances.
However, with the increased popularity and robustness of browser software comes increased risk of malicious code, which is commonly referred to as malware (see DEFINITIONS section). It also makes it more difficult to control the communications of people's who's communications need some measure of oversight and control, such as young students, people on probation, suspected terrorists or military personnel near a combat zone.
US patent application (“USPA”) 2005/0251693 (“693 Shevchenko”) discloses a system used for computer network communication that strives to protect user's computers from unauthorized access. The system of 693 Shevchenko includes: a protected computer 8 (references to reference numerals in this paragraph refer to 693 Shevchenko); a display 7; an output switch 6; and an external unit 1,2,3,4,5,10. In operation, The external unit 1,2,3,4,5,10 communicates directly with a computer network, like the internet. It is believed that 693 Shevchenko contemplates that these communications may take the form of HTML coded webpages, and associated data communicated in HTTP protocols to/from the internet. While 693 Shevchenko does not mention the work “browser,” it is believed that 693 Shevchenko would teach or suggest to one of ordinary skill that external unit 1,2,3,4,5,10 would typically include a browser in implementations where the “external communications link” (see 693 Shevchenko at FIG. 1) was a link to the internet. Regardless, of whether external unit 1,2,3,4,5,10 of 693 Shevchenko is ultimately considered to effectively teach a browser communication with the internet, it is clear external unit 1,2,3,4,5,10 of 693 Shevchenko converts its incoming network communications into the form of frames before sending them to protected computer 8 through the mechanism of switch 6. These frames basically represent visual displays. They are one form of “rendered images” or “bitmaps.” In this way, the protected computer 8 of 693 Shevchenko is protected from malware. Specifically, because the protected computer receives only frames, and not more complex code, such as HTML web page code, the protected computer will not tend to receive malware because the data it gets simply represents the pixels of a visual display, rather than executable instructions that could take the protected computer in bad and difficult-to-prospectively-predict directions. The rendered images of the frames of 693 Shevchenko include malware in the sense that they could cause unwanted displays, such as a display of unrequested pornography. Nevertheless, the result of the unintended code, on protected computer 8, will be limited to the visual display of an unintended image, and not something more serious like an infectious and self-replicating computer virus.
USPA 2009/0307571 (“571 Gowda”) discloses a computer system for displaying images from the internet on what 571 Gowda calls a “static display device.” The static display device of Gowda may take the form of a digital picture frame, and, more generally, is a device with just enough processing power, storage and/or memory to store and display rendered images (which 571 Gowda calls static image files). As shown in FIG. 1 of 571 Gowda, the 571 Gowda system includes: internet/web 118 (reference numerals in this paragraph make reference to the Figures of 571 Gowda); image service 110; static display device 102; and user computer 106. Internet/web 118 includes servers that have HTML web pages which include image(s) in the web page. In operational aspects relevant for present purposes, the image service 110 requests, by URL, an HTML web page as directed by the user computer 106. When internet/web 118 delivers the requested HTML web page to image service 110, the image service extracts one or more rendered images from the HTML web page. The image service then sends these rendered images, without the rest of the HTML page, to static display device 102. Static display device 102 stores and displays the image for enjoyment by viewers (for example, viewers of a digital picture frame hanging on a wall in a home). Things to note regarding 571 Gowda are as follows: (i) the static display devices that receives the extracted rendered image does not have a browser and does not receive the rendered images from the image service in a browser; (ii) the static display device does not request web pages from a browser (but rather user computer 106 specifies which images are to be sent to the static display device that receives the rendered images from the image service); (iii) the static display device does not render new images based on HTML pages, but merely removes images that are already rendered and present within the HTML page from the HTML page before forwarding them along to the static display device; and (iv) a user of the static display device cannot interact with the displayed image and cannot use the rendered image as a basis for further interactive network communications (that is, the viewer of the static display device does not use the images displayed there to surf the web).
The website at http://www.invincea.com/ (including all linked pages and/or pdf files) as of Sep. 3, 2010 deals with software that can be used in a computer to protect that computer against malware. For example, on a web page entitled “Invincea™ Browser protection enables users to knock out sophisticated Web-borne treats—in real time” includes the following disclosure: “Invincea™ Browser Protection shields PC users against all types of Web-borne threats by seamlessly moving desktop Web browsers into a controlled virtual environment. Exceptional Protection: Invincea provides a fully isolated browser environment to maximize PC protection. It automatically detects and terminates a threat in real time, disposes of the tainted environment, and restarts a pristine one. Signature-Free Detection: Unlike other solutions, Invincea does not rely on malware signatures for detection, nor does it rely on users to make correct security decisions. Instead, it automatically identifies malware attacks based on behaviors and actions inside a controlled environment.” This disclosure is understood to mean that: (i) the Invincea™ system sets up a virtual machine or virtual process to receive and process communications received over a network; (ii) upon the detection of some abnormal condition (indicative of malware) within the virtual machine or virtual process the system flips the virtual machine; and (iii) this flipping of the virtual machine or virtual process reduces or eliminates the unintended affects of any malware which may have present in the network communication received by the virtual machine or virtual process.
Other published documents which may be of interest may include the following: (-i) USPA 2003/0208558 (“Venkataraman”); (ii) USPA 2009/0307603 (“603 Gowda”); (iii) USPA 2007/0150685 (“685 Shevchenko”); (iv) USPA 2008/0022386 (“386 Shevchenko”); (v) USPA 2010/0146301 (“301 Shevchenko”); (vi) USPA 2010/0122343 (“343 Ghosh”); and/or (vii) USPA 2009/0044265 (“265 Ghosh”).
Description Of the Related Art Section Disclaimer: To the extent that specific publications are discussed above in this Description of the Related Art Section, these discussions should not be taken as an admission that the discussed publications (for example, published patents) are prior art for patent law purposes. For example, some or all of the discussed publications may not be sufficiently early in time, may not reflect subject matter developed early enough in time and/or may not be sufficiently enabling so as to amount to prior art for patent law purposes. To the extent that specific publications are discussed above in this Description of the Related Art Section, they are all hereby incorporated by reference into this document in their respective entirety(ies).